Have you heard of Ignaz Semmelweis? Probably not. But he should be one of the most important doctors in the history of medicine. Ignaz was an Austrian-Hungarian obstetrician with a 'Trump-like' personality. His very important contribution to the medical profession was three words, that he made famous in 1847: “Wash your hands.”
That wise advice was based on the doctors hard data showing after he and his staff began washing their hands, and disinfecting equipment between patients, patient infections and deaths dropped sharply. Real science.
But the scientific “consensus” at the time was assuming no benefit to these measures, believe it or not, so Dr. Semmelweis's advice was almost completely ignored. Many doctors were angry with his suggestion that they could be responsible for transmitting disease! At the time, doctors took pride in their soiled gowns, which showed how hard they were working.
A doctor who just completed an autopsy would not think twice about going directly to the maternity ward to deliver a baby, WITHOUT washing up! That was the medical “consensus” of the time, so how could not washing your hands be wrong?
Unfortunately, Dr. Semmelweis died in an insane asylum in 1865. He was driven insane by knowing so many patients had needlessly suffered and died ... because the medical community refused to accept his findings.The year Dr. Semmelweis died, by coincidence, British surgeon Dr. Joseph Lister began building on the work of French microbiologist Louis Pasteur's germ theory. He instructed surgeons under his responsibility to wash their hands with a 5% solution of carbolic acid, and wear clean gloves. His work validated Dr. Semmelweis's discoveries.
We all benefit from Dr. Semmelweis's work, even though he was never recognized for his contribution during his lifetime. The scientific “consensus” at the time was wrong. So patients continued to needlessly suffer and die.
Dr. Semmelweis discovered a "scientific" consensus is often wrong.
A consensus means nothing in real science. In climate junk science, however, it is everything. Important enough to create bogus studies to falsely claim a 97% "consensus (described in prior articles here). Add computer games that have consistently over predicted global warming since the 1970s. And in response to the over predicting, revised 2020 computer games are predicting even faster global warming!